The Killing Game (episode)
In an attempt to find new ways to satisfy their predatory instincts, the Hirogen erase the memories of the Voyager crew and force them into violent holodeck simulations. Summary Captain Kathryn Janeway, altered to look like a Klingon, battles several other Klingons. A Hirogen interrupts the battle and stabs her. He calls sickbay to tell them that the captain is injured and needs medical attention. has been taken over by the Hirogen and they are using the holodeck to hunt the crew in various simulations with the safety protocols deactivated. Each crewmember has been fitted with a neural interface that makes them believe they actually are the character in the holodeck program. Janeway, Seven of Nine, Neelix, Lieutenant Commander Tuvok and Lt. jg B'Elanna Torres are put in a simulation of the Nazi occupation of Sainte Claire, France. They are running a café, Le Coeur de Lion, but are secretly working for the French Resistance, while the Hirogen are working alongside the Nazis. Seven of Nine, or Mademoiselle de Neuf as she is called in the simulation, is a lounge singer, Janeway, or Katrine, is the café owner, and Tuvok is the bartender. The first scene of the French simulation begins with Seven singing "It Can't Be Wrong". ( ) The "Resistance" deciphers a radio message telling them that the Allied forces will arrive within days and they must assist by disabling the Nazi's communications. One of the Hirogen, Turanj, gets dissatisfied with "playing the game" and ends up shooting Seven and Neelix. They are taken to sickbay, where The Doctor is asked to attend to their injuries. He insists that they stop these brutalities because the bodies of the crew have not been designed for this kind of punishment. "For the past three weeks," says The Doctor, "they have been stabbed, shot, beaten, phasered and bat'lethed" after which he is forced to attend to them just so they can be sent back for more. The Hirogen however, refuse to listen, even when The Doctor asks that they at least activate the holodeck safety protocols. Back on the bridge, the Hirogen are forcing Ensign Harry Kim to expand the holodeck grids so that they can expand the holo-projectors into all surrounding sections. While another crew member distracts one of the Hirogen guards, Kim manages to beam The Doctor out of sickbay and tell him about his plan to get the crew back. Before they can begin to recover the crew they need to disable the neural interfaces. He has found a way to tap into the sickbay diagnostic console but somebody has got to be inside the holodeck to engage the bridge control relays. They decide to use Seven's help for this task. In the ready room, Karr tells Turanj that he has been studying Voyager s database looking for their next simulation. He tells him that there are many to chose from because Humans have a violent history. When World War II is over, he plans to engage the Borg by recreating a notorious battle known as Wolf 359. However, this will be one hunt Turanj will never see if he continues to disobey him. Karr tells him that his lust for the kill has blinded him, like it has blinded many young hunters. He tells Turanj that if the younger hunters took the time to study their prey, to understand its behavior, they might learn something because each prey exposes them to another way of life while at the same time making them re-evaluate their own. He wonders what will become of the Hirogen when they have hunted this territory to exhaustion: a way of life that hasn't changed in a thousand years. He complains that they have lost their identity, that they have allowed their predatory instincts to dominate them - turning them into a solitary race, isolated, no longer a culture. He insists that their people must come back together, combine forces and rebuild their civilization. Karr believes the hunt will always continue but in a new way, for he intends to transform this ship into a vast simulation, eventually replicating the technology which will allow them to hold on to their past while they face the future. Turanj is convinced that Karr is right, albeit very reluctantly, for he knows that others might not agree with Karr's assessment. In sickbay, The Doctor manages to wake Seven, explaining to her that he has found a way to disable the interface by remodulating one of her Borg implants to emit a jamming signal. Once she is back on the holodeck, the jamming signal will activate within seconds at which moment she must find the control panel inside the holodeck and engage the bridge access relays so he and Kim can deactivate all the neural interfaces. Back in the World War II simulation, Seven is singing "That Old Black Magic" on stage, when one of her implants emits the jamming signal. At that moment she quickly excuses herself and gets off the stage. Since her character has shown resistance to Janeway in the past, suspicions that she is a Nazi sympathizer now come to a head with her new unwillingness to continue to sing while Janeway pumps the commandant (Karr) for information. The French Resistance plan to infiltrate the Nazi headquarters to disable the communications and Seven assists them. While Seven and Janeway are inside, Tuvok stays hidden outside and sees some Hirogen approaching. This group of Hirogen are not in Nazi uniforms but are equipped with their Hirogen armor and weapons. Tuvok attacks them to keep them from discovering Seven and Janeway inside. As the Allied Captain, Chakotay, and Tom Paris arrive and organize their troops, Janeway reaches the emitter planning to blow it up (which happens to be the wall where the bridge interface is). Seven is attempting to access the bridge interface, as Janeway (still in character) picks up the headphones and attempts to decipher the Nazi communications. Janeway notices Seven has not yet planted the charges and sees her accessing the interface but doesn't know what it is. She thinks this proves Seven is a traitor and has been sending messages to the Nazis. She points her pistol at Seven but when she is about to pull the trigger, Janeway's interface is disabled, just as artillery barrages create a simulated explosion, blowing a hole in the holodeck wall. The Voyager characters do not know what to make of it becuase the program is still running. Seven and Janeway escape through the hole and the troops begin charging into the "Nazi bunker", taking the war to the rest of the ship. :[[The Killing Game, Part II (episode)|''TO BE CONTINUED...]] Memorable quotes "''When the Americans arrive and the fighting begins, I don't intend to be standing next to a piano singing "Moonlight Becomes You."" : - Seven of Nine to Captain Janeway "I must discontinue this activity. I am not well." : - Seven of Nine, after The Doctor's tampering restores her memories and identity mid-song "Straight from Allied High Command." "It must be important." "All messages regarding the war are important. It's only a matter of degree." "I suppose you're right, but do you have to be so... logical about everything?" "In any covert battle, logic is a potent weapon. You might try it sometime." : - Tuvok and Neelix "We've got to stop meeting like this." : - The Doctor, when Ensign Kim activates him in the mess hall to discuss plans for retaking the ship Background Information Story and Script * Writer/producer Joe Menosky had the original idea for this episode, being effected by his experience of having repeatedly seen – while living and working in Europe – televised footage of the Second World War that was profuse there. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 87) The plot concept was one of the first ideas that Menosky revealed to his fellow writing staffers on Star Trek: Voyager, upon returning to work on Star Trek from abroad. (Star Trek Monthly issue 39, p. 12) He remembered, "When I got back from Europe, I wanted to do a World War II show .... I thought it would be real cool to do a World War II episode with our characters [on ''Star Trek: Voyager], and have a little French town and tanks and our people in GI uniforms." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 87) This was in or thereabouts. Neither Joe Menosky nor ''Voyager s other staff writers could find a way of making the plot concept work. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 87; Star Trek Monthly issue 39, p. 13) "We just never knew how to work it," Menosky admitted. "In the back of our minds, we figured it would be an arena-like story where a powerful alien race tosses us and somebody else down into a World War II scenario. We have to fight it out, like when a little kid throws red ants and black ants together and watches the results." This initial concept stayed on hold for a long time. (Star Trek Monthly issue 39, p. 13) * The war-related idea was reconsidered after the Hirogen were conceived of. Joe Menosky recollected, "Once we had the Hirogen, that seemed like a good time to resurrect this World War II thing." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 87) The story was then added to by co-executive producer Brannon Braga, when he conceived of an idea that he thought was "cool" – having aliens in Nazi German uniforms. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 87; Star Trek Monthly issue 39, p. 13) Subsequently, the Hirogen were used to fill this role. Menosky commented, "I think input is what led to the idea of using these Hunters in that regard." (Star Trek Monthly issue 39, p. 13) * The specifics of how the characters would be transported into the World War II setting still had to be devised. "So, we were struggling with how this was going to happen," Joe Menosky related. "In my original story, I had the Hunters have a kind of hunting scenario planet. It was like a planetary Holodeck, and we found ourselves down in a simulation because they drove us there. But in working out the story, when we were all together as a staff team, Ken Biller came up with the idea that it was on our Holodeck." (Star Trek Monthly issue 39, pp. 13-14) Menosky also stated, "Ken Biller had the good idea of putting it on a holodeck, and making this the big holodeck episode of the year. That was the last key to get things rolling in terms of actually starting to write an episode." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 87) * Beginning to pen the script for this episode, the writer/producers decided to start the episode's storyline with the starship Voyager having already been invaded by the Hirogen. Joe Menosky remembered, "We cut right to the action, didn't deal with the takeover of our ship, and got right into this holodeck story." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 87) * It was while scripting this episode that the writers devised of the character of Karr, whose motives were used as thematic material for the two-parter. "A lot of times, strangely enough (and this happened in ''The Year of Hell two-parter, as well), you don't get the bigger theme until you've actually progressed with the plot, despite the fact that the theme might hold everything together," Joe Menosky observed. "''And in this case, through not only working out the story, but even the script of part one, Brannon and I arrived at the notion that one member of these Hunter aliens was starting to question the way his society behaved in terms of hunting and killing the species around them and what that would lead to. was a metaphor for exhausting your resources." (Star Trek Monthly issue 39, p. 14) * The exploding building near the end of this episode was thought up by Brannon Braga. He noted, "I always wanted to explode a building on ''Star Trek, and had never quite figured out how to do it." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 87) * In this episode's shooting script, Janeway's holographic persona goes by the name Genevieve. (Star Trek: Voyager Companion, p. 232) This is possibly an inside joke referring to the fact that actress Genevieve Bujold was initially selected to portray the role of ''Voyager s captain. The name of Janeway's Wold War II character changed, thereafter, to Katrine. Cast and Characters * For this episode, Roxann Dawson's pregnancy is intentionally shown on screen. In the Season 4 DVD extras, Dawson reveals she was relieved that she didn't have to hide her body while filming this arc. * Jeri Ryan does her own singing in this episode. Production * Upon starting the filming of this episode, the production crew were tired out. "When Joe and I wrote the two-parter," Brannon Braga offered, "the production team was exhausted. They'd just done 'Year of Hell' and 'Prey' and the other blockbusters. How in the world were we going to pull off this World War II epic?" (Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 87) * Filming for the two-parter covered late November-early December 1997. The teaser sequence was shot on Paramount Stage 16 on , while the Sainte Claire exteriors were filmed over three days, including , at Universal Studios' "European Street" backlot. (''Star Trek Magazine'' issue 143) Reception * This episode aired back-to-back with on its first airing. The producers had originally intended to air the two parts as a single, feature-length edition (and promotional trailers for the episodes advertised them as such). However, these plans did not materialize, and each episode aired as a separate entity. A feature-length version was aired by the BBC on its first airing on , and formed part of the UK VHS release Star Trek: Voyager - Movies. * This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series. Continuity and Trivia * This is the fourth mention of Nazi Germany in Star Trek. The Nazis first appeared in and . Captain Kirk also referenced "Earth, Hitler, 1938" in , in reply to General General Chang's comment of "We need breathing room." Following their appearance here, the Nazis would return in and (both of which, coincidentally, also feature actor J. Paul Boehmer portraying a Nazi character), when agents from the Temporal Cold War send Captain Archer and the back to the Second World War. * Both Captain Janeway and Neelix are seen wearing Klingon uniforms in this episode. Tom Paris would later wear one in . * This two-parter marks the only episodes where Roxann Dawson's pregnancy is intentionally shown on screen. Seven of Nine clarifies that her character's pregnancy is holographic, but in the Season 4 DVD extras, Dawson was relieved that she didn't have to hide her body while filming this arc. * The text that appears on screen when The Doctor accesses Janeway's profile is a summary of the events in the Season 2 episode . * In the German version of this episode, one of the two women in the street scene offends B'Elanna Torres (as Brigit) by saying "Naziflittchen" ("Nazi slut") while, in the original version, the woman only spits in front of B'Elanna. Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 4.9, catalogue number VHR 4630, . *In feature-length form, as part of the UK VHS collection Star Trek: Voyager - Movies: Volume 3 (with "Equinox"), . *As part of the VOY Season 4 DVD collection. Links and references Starring *Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway Also starring *Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay *Roxann Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres *Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris *Ethan Phillips as Neelix *Robert Picardo as The Doctor *Tim Russ as Lieutenant Commander Tuvok *Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine *Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim Guest Stars *Danny Goldring as Karr *Mark Metcalf as a Hirogen medic *Mark Deakins as Turanj *J. Paul Boehmer as the Kapitan *Paul Eckstein as a young Hirogen *Peter Hendrixson as a Klingon Uncredited Co-Stars *David Keith Anderson as Ashmore *Dieter Horneman as Nazi guard *Tom Morga as a Klingon References artillery; bat'leth; Battle of Wolf 359; bridge control relay; Le Coeur de Lion; Crusades; dizziness; Dover; Fifth Armored Infantry; France; Gewehr 98/40;Goulot; Grande Odalisque; Hirogen; Hirogen philosophy; Hirogen's Klingon simulation; Hirogen warship; holodeck; hologram; hologrid; jamming signal; Klingon; Leda and the Swan; M1 Garand; McNulty, Jazzy; Nazi; Praxiteles; Tarpahk; Sainte Claire; Smith, Reginald; US Army; Second World War; The Concert; US 29th Infantry Division External link *"The Killing Game" at FiveMinute.net |next= }} de:Das Tötungsspiel, Teil I es:The Killing Game, Part I fr:The Killing Game, Part I nl:The Killing Game, Deel I Killing Game, Part I, The